South Korean ticket touts to face the music when new penalties come into play

South Korea is implementing new penalties to combat ticket scalping, particularly affecting K-pop concerts. From August 28, amendments to the National Sports Promotion Act and Performance Act will allow authorities to impose fines of up to 50 times the resale price of a ticket. This measure aims to address the issue of organized resellers, bots, and workarounds that inflate ticket prices far beyond face value, making it difficult for ordinary fans to secure tickets. Previous attempts to curb scalping have been unsuccessful, and the government hopes these significant fines will deter predatory scalpers. The new penalties represent a substantial increase from the previous maximum fine of 10 million won.